Stuff… rules the way of life

Stuff… rules the way of life

By Markus Zuercher

I finished my last blog with the sentence:

'My father opted not to continue the family tradition of farming; he moved away from the farm to an urban area and became a carpenter…'

Perhaps this is a good example of how globalizing processes benefit some and are detrimental to others. The demise of small farms over the last century was certainly accelerated by the notion of ‘Laissez-Faire’, the emergence of farming cooperatives and finally by the transnational corporations. Dr Kuttainen (2013) demonstrated the trend of labour flows in this week’s lecture (pp. 4,7,8).

Maybe my father just didn’t like farming or maybe he saw the bigger picture and recognised the futility of small-time farming. I believe he even contemplated migration to South Africa but opted instead to put his love for wood and artistic skills to good use and become a carpenter/cabinetmaker. Dicken (2007, pp. 439,440) describes this process ‘winning and losing’. The loosing aspect was the eventual demise of the family farm but on the other hand, we gained very skilful craftsman as the picture of the hand carved family crest shows.

Family Crest (Zürcher, n.d.)

I am in the unique position to observe this so-called third industrial revolution from several different viewpoints. The Economist (2012) article focuses on the later part of this revolution and how jobs and manufacturing may go back to the future of those ‘weaver’s cottages’ (p. 2). This change is happening faster and faster, my father witnessed the tractor replacing the horse. I saw how my father replacing his hand tools with machines. As an electronics technician, I learned about transistors and now I have to deal with nanotechnology. My children were trained how to use PC’s at school and now I see my grandchild’s first toy is some fangled 3D electronic gadget.  

Reference list

Anonymous. (2012, April 21). The third industrial revolution, The Economist. Retrieved from https://learnjcu.jcu.edu.au/bbcswebdav/pid-1176501-dt-content-rid-837469_1/xid-837469_1

Dicken, P. (2007). Winning and losing: An introduction. In Global shift: mapping the changing contours of the world economy (pp. 437-453). London: SAGE.

Kuttainen, V. (2013). BA1002: Our Space: Networks, narratives and the making of place, week 8 notes. [PowerPoint slides]. Retrieved from http://learnjcu.edu.au

Picture credit

Zürcher, H. (n.d.). Family Crest: Authors collection.